Everybody in Oakland, I suppose, has their own “Worst homeless encampment” spot. Usually it’s someplace near their home that makes them feel unsafe and creepy. Mine is just a block away: Lakeside Park, the 122-acre greenspace and lake that’s been called “The Jewel of Oakland.”
I’ve enjoyed that park for nearly forty years. I’ve sunbathed there, jogged around the lake, and soaked in the natural beauty. I’ve relaxed watching the birds, enjoyed kayakers gliding on the water, listened to concerts at the bandstand, and when Gus was alive, we used to enjoy romps on the extensive lawns. I often take visitors to the Bonsai Gardens, and although I’ve never been to Children’s Fairyland, I’m glad it’s there. Lakeside Park is the luckiest thing Oakand has; I can’t imagine the city without it.
But there’s something that’s wrecking the park and has been for years. Homeless people consider it a fine place to put up their tents and other structures. They know the city won’t bother them, even though they’re violating all sorts of ordinances. I used to complain to the Parks Department about it, but I no longer do. Why bother? No one in government cares. And where there are encampments, of course, there’s also litter and rubbish and drugs and human excrement.
Can you imagine if Paris, say, had homeless encampments in the Luxembourg Gardens? Or London in Hyde Park? Or New York in Central Park? The authorities there would close them immediately, not only because they’re illegal but because they’re an affront to the dignity and beauty of a great city. But Oakland? Not a chance. The people that run this town don’t want Oakland to be a great city. They want it to be a sanctuary for homeless people.
Lakeside Park is mostly located in District 3 (Carroll Fife), with part in District 2 (Nikki Bas). Both women are, as you know, the most pro-encampment politicians in Oakland. Both defend the “right” of homeless people to camp wherever they want. Neither, to my knowledge, has ever actively engaged in the work of evicting illegal campers. Both weirdly believe that homeless people have more rights than housed people. Neither will ever do anything about encampments unless forced to do so, which is why the encampment problem in Lakeside Park keeps getting worse.
These people—Fife and Bas—used to claim they couldn’t roust campers because the Courts didn’t allow it. But since last June, they no longer have that excuse, what with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass ruling, which I have written about extensively. With no legal fig leaf to hide behind, Fife’s and Bas’s refusal to clean up Lakeside Park is revealed for what it is: They don’t want to. Which makes us conclude that they like the degradation and ugliness of the slums, tents, makeshift structures and piles of refuse.
Why do they like such ugliness? Their constituents certainly don’t. Everybody wants the park to be restored to its former grace. But people have rightly concluded that their City Council representatives don’t give a damn about anything, unless it’s from their “social justice” playbook, which includes protecting encampments. Why is it “social justice” to allow homeless people to befoul The Jewel of Oakland? What about justice for us residents, for parents who want to bring their kids to the park, for citizens whose tax dollars pay for the park’s upkeep, for the elderly who just want to stroll without threats, for homeowners who depend on the increasing value of their investments?
This city has failed in its prime responsibility: ensuring law and order. Encampments in public parks are an egregious assault on the integrity of the city. They challenge the core idea of democracy: that a group of citizens can live in a community where laws are enacted and then enforced for the common good, where the public commons is clean and safe. No one is above the law: not politicians, not billionaires, and not homeless people.
Look, Berkeley just let it be known they’re “embracing an aggressive approach to homeless encampments,” thus joining San Jose and San Francisco in getting tough on illegal squatters. That leaves Oakland alone and isolated as the only major Bay Area city whose City Council continues to coddle encampments. This is not a distinction, I think, we should welcome. Both Bas and Fife will be on the ballot in November. If you’re offended by the leading role they’ve played, and continue to play, in the ongoing despoilment of Oakland, I urge you to vote them out of office.
P.S. Great news! Late yesterday we learned that the California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, has dropped the case against Butch Ford, the former, longtime Alameda County Assistant District Attorney who was vengefully fired by Pamela Price because he dared to criticize her racist regime. This is a major embarrassment to Price, and yet another reason to recall her on Nov. 5.
Steve Heimoff